I teamed up with Sila Puhl once more, this time as an actor. I joined her and director Mikhaela Mahony in a reading of The New Mary at The Bushwick Starr.
I never knew that my dream project was to play both a nun and a sex ed teacher, but here we are, dreams fulfilled.
Inside Jaclyn Backhaus’ head is where I want to live!
And I did, for two weeks! In a workshop of her new play Healthcliff!! at New Dramatists.
Heathcliff!! aims to reclaim Wuthering Heights’ bad boy as the character of color he was originally written as. Jaclyn imagines him as an Indian ship slave seeking revenge on his shipmaster and the East India Company.
I played not only Cathy’s alcoholic brother Hindley, but also a sailor in an anthropomorphic love affair with the sea, AND Hindley’s foul mouthed toddler. Emerald Fennell could never ;)
I spent two weeks workshopping sadie river’s drag ball on the lawn by Basil Kreimendahl with Rattlestick Theater, playing a queer Kentuckian garbage man hoping to do his house mother proud by infiltrating the Kentucky Derby in upperclass drag.
Rattlestick’s new Waverly Performance Studio challenges artists and audiences to participate in active process, with truly no product in sight. Exploring tone and relationships in real time in front of an audience was an electric experience. It felt like finding a secret door in my craft and I hope to apply the lessons I learned in this process in my future artistic investigations.
Endless thanks to nicHi Douglas and Will Davis, and the entire Rattlestick team!
I wrapped That Therapist Works Magic, a short written and directed by The Daily Show director Carmen Angelica! As promised, it was therapeutic/magical!
I struck CAMP again, directing the radically hilarious Sila Puhl’s new one person show It Ends With Me.
Sila’s show dives into the psyche of suffering, challenging our ideas of connection to one another, and skewering the American dream. With love.
Sila is a rare talent, brave enough to say what’s really on your mind but kind enough to make sure you’re laughing at the absurdity of your thinking to begin with.
Oh good, Shiz happened at UCB again!
Special guests Hannah Cruz, Edred Utomi, and Monica Tulia Ramirez helped us warm our January bodies with their laughs while I warmed some dead bodies in the hospital with my cherry Jell-O.
The Reality Show: NYU began in 2005 with nine scrappy kids (me being one of them) devising a show with the legendary Elizabeth Swados to perform in a small auditorium at NYU.
Here we are twenty seasons later, still scrappy, but having performed under my direction on the biggest stages in New York City and beyond.
I’m so proud of my twenty year tenure, having ushered forth hundreds (!) of new artists from across the world and having performed for hundreds of thousands (!) new community members of the New York University global network.
Reveling in revelations and generating generations now continues for me on new paths. I’m excited to meet you along the road!
Remember that time Shiz was happening all the time and you laughed? And then we went away?
We returned last night as part of the grand reopening celebration of UCB sparkle emoji!
Special guest Tyrone Davis Junior made us giggle as The Music Man and Sweeney Todd, and newly Tony-blessed member Shaina Taub sang higher than you.
Another collaboration has dropped!
Grace McLean has entrusted me to create another music video, this time for her single Albertine.
Choreographed by Aishia Lin Sampson and directed, filmed and edited by me, we danced our way with Grace and Anna March through SPACE on Ryder Farm.
This video is about fractalizing ourselves to release relationships that no longer serve us, hoping that both parties can find their space to soar. Enjoy <3
Another summer, another installation of The Reality Show: NYU!
Under my direction, we took to the stages of Radio City Music Hall in New York City, The Red Theater in Abu Dhabi, and the Shanghai NYU campus for messages of hope and healing.
This year we explored new content, investigating emotion regulation and awareness. As always I am so proud of the multigenerational multinational multitalented casts and crews.
I am so proud to release my music video for Grace McLean’s new single RECKLESS and honey reckless is what we got!
We got in bathtubs! We made out with Mannequins! We drank so many bottles of wine so that we could lay in a bed of corks not really you can buy corks in bulk online!
I have endless gratitude for Grace’s friendship and belief in my creativity and collaboration. Now go get a fur coat and shake your mane :*
Have you ever wanted to play piano but then you couldn’t! And then you split off into five versions of yourself and one of them was a wall!
From the windowwwwww… to the me.
That happened to me in the multimedia performance piece I created for Ars Nova’s CAMP comedy residency.
Chicken Soup With Stars is a romp through the many sides of ourselves we call upon to face our insecurities and a reminder that we’re all scared little stars floating in soup so we better show up for ourselves.
I wrote, filmed, edited, composed the music and performed in this multi-hyphenate multi-media, multi-they’d theatrical experience. And I had fun :) You can watch it here (starting around minute 18).
Take your eyes on a macabre stroll through my video design and edit of a virtual concert reading presentation of AGAINST WOMEN & MUSIC! written by Grace McLean and Kate Douglas and directed by Sarna Lapine. Premiering tonight on The Civilians’ Vimeo page with a brief hello with the creators and stars Amber Gray and Katrina Lenk.
Amber Gray as Celine in Against Women & Music
Tune in for a virtual PoliSub spaaaa niiiiiiight to soothe your aching heart as you await tonight’s election results. Where’d You Get That Mask, Polling and interstitials video designed and edited by yours truly <3 and watch it on YouTube for years to come here.
The Reality Show rose through the fear to bring optimism and emotional relief in these troubled times. Current students in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai as well as alums of New York City’s many years of shows built this project from across the globe to welcome this year’s incoming class during these unprecedented times.
Directing from my living room was something I never anticipated, and learning to edit on the fly has been a challenge and a thrill. I can’t wait to see how these skills will continue to shape my art and life as we emerge on the other side of our current isolation.
You can watch trailers for this year’s NYC show here and here.
Kuhoo Verma in “Era of Uncertainty” from The Reality Show: NYU 2020
Cast members (ONE OF WHOM IS I!) have been announced for LEMMINGS: 21st CENTURY, a reboot of National Lampoon’s off broadway hit of the 70s which launched the careers of artists such as Christopher Guest, Jim Belushi and Chevy Chase.
It is an honor that the family of artists I’ve been working with for a decade have been recognized by comedy icon National Lampoon. I can’t wait to see where this piece of work leads us!
Come laugh at us March 14th and 15th at Joe’s Pub!
Choreographer Flannery Gregg and I sat down with Kathryn Lindsay at Refinery29 about our work dancing in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and sewing too many dresses.
Take a spin with us here!
An incredible honor to once again sing with La MaMa ETC, this time at their Ellen Stewart Centennial Celebration honoring Philip Glass. Singing Elizabeth Swados’ composition Change, Alicia Olatuja, Starr Busby, Jo Lampert and I embodied the words of Ellen:
“I think every artist who has been blessed by God has an obligation to society to share his art, to communicate to the entire world…Society takes it for granted what you’re doing. Don’t let them forget you. No self doubt.”
The Rest of Us, a film I developed with Linda Mills, produced with Mary Stuart Masterson, and starred in with an incredible ensemble including Laila Robinson and Raffi Barsoumian, now has a trailer! Take a look here!
REALITY SHOW SEASON 15 saw itself at RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL this year. There were platforms, there were lights under those platforms, and there were bagpipes. Dang!
This marks my 15th summer working on this project and being the creative director of this international venture is the artistic and spiritual anchor of my adult life. Unending gratitude to the hundreds of people who make this project happen every year and to the New York, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai campuses of New York University. Here’s to another fifteen :)